NHIAA Football: Colcord resigns post at Memorial

Memorial head coach Peter Colcord prepares his team for the 2014 Turkey Bowl in Manchester. (Thomas Roy/Union Leader File)

Peter Colcord recently completed his 10th season as Manchester Memorial’s varsity football coach. Barring something unforeseen, it was also his final season as Memorial’s head coach.

Colcord, a physical education teacher at Memorial, said he submitted his letter of resignation earlier this month. The Crusaders have finished 0-9 in each of the last three seasons.

“I think there needs to be a change there and I have a lot of personal things going on,” Colcord said. “Going into last season I was 99.9 percent sure this would be my last year, but I didn’t want to do anything until I was sure. I told my coaches after our last game and then spoke to the kids.

“It was the chance of a lifetime for me to be a head coach and I thoroughly enjoyed working with the kids for the last 10 years.”

Memorial, which hasn’t qualified for the playoffs since the 2003 season, had a 26-73 record during Colcord’s tenure. The 2014 season was Colcord’s best. A loss to Goffstown on the regular season’s final weekend prevented Memorial from qualifying for the playoffs that year. The Crusaders finished 6-4 following a 41-14 victory over Central on Thanksgiving. It’s the only time Memorial has won on Thanksgiving since the current format for determining the city champion was adopted in 1981.

Colcord, 64, spent one season as an assistant coach at Memorial before he was elevated to head coach. He has also worked as an assistant coach at Winnacunnet, Trinity and Londonderry. He’s the third Division I coach who has resigned since the end of the 2017 regular season, joining Bishop Guertin’s Jeff Moore and Spaulding’s Jeff Hunt.

Colcord said he plans to continue his coaching career in some capacity.

“I’d like to,” he said. “I don’t think it will be next year. I’m still a coach. It’s still in my blood. We’ll see what opens up.”